Comments on: The art of beta testing-part 2 http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2005/11/18/the-art-of-betatesting-part-2/ Palm OS / web OS news and opinion source Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:35:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: The art of betatesting-Part 3 >> TamsPalm-the Palm OS Blog http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2005/11/18/the-art-of-betatesting-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-128 The art of betatesting-Part 3 >> TamsPalm-the Palm OS Blog Wed, 30 Nov 2005 11:59:36 +0000 http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/?p=160#comment-128 [...] Organization rules! The last two parts tought us that, in case you missed them, find them here: The Art of betatesting-Completely outsourcing tests is dangerous The Art of betatesting-Random testing is useless-structured testing rules Today, we will cover a topic that could easily have been taken from Murphy’s law: the amount of betatesters active is high at two points over time: Registration and Code giveaways! Zombietesters and other troubles Betatesters are like a can of worms. Once opened, the only way to recan them is to use a bigger can. The very same thing happens to many developers. You have an excellent team for version x, and three to six months later, you start betaing version y. An email goes out to the old gang-and you get one reply at best. Where did the testers go to? People tend to forget stuff after some time. Thus, you need to do only one thing to keep them active-keep releasing new betas. Alternatively, you could also follow the approach of the bazaar-users want updates. So, you could dismiss your beta team after initial release-and use registered customers as voluntary testers! This approach pays out, because registered customers usually are interested in the development of the program as they paid for it. As an additional bonus, you can save the licences that you need to give the testers! Any ideas here? Did you ever do a registered user test? [...] [...] Organization rules! The last two parts tought us that, in case you missed them, find them here: The Art of betatesting-Completely outsourcing tests is dangerous The Art of betatesting-Random testing is useless-structured testing rules Today, we will cover a topic that could easily have been taken from Murphy’s law: the amount of betatesters active is high at two points over time: Registration and Code giveaways! Zombietesters and other troubles Betatesters are like a can of worms. Once opened, the only way to recan them is to use a bigger can. The very same thing happens to many developers. You have an excellent team for version x, and three to six months later, you start betaing version y. An email goes out to the old gang-and you get one reply at best. Where did the testers go to? People tend to forget stuff after some time. Thus, you need to do only one thing to keep them active-keep releasing new betas. Alternatively, you could also follow the approach of the bazaar-users want updates. So, you could dismiss your beta team after initial release-and use registered customers as voluntary testers! This approach pays out, because registered customers usually are interested in the development of the program as they paid for it. As an additional bonus, you can save the licences that you need to give the testers! Any ideas here? Did you ever do a registered user test? [...]

]]> By: admin http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2005/11/18/the-art-of-betatesting-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-96 admin Sun, 20 Nov 2005 14:57:27 +0000 http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/?p=160#comment-96 Hi, thank you for the feedback. There is a lot of info about PODS available in the "old" blog-so sorry, but these posts havent been moved here yet. About SnmallBASIC and OnBoardC: I could do a bit of stuff on these too-if you all are interested and I have the time;). What development tools would you like to see discussed? Books will be reviewed soon... Best regards Tam Hanna Hi,
thank you for the feedback.

There is a lot of info about PODS available in the “old” blog-so sorry, but these posts havent been moved here yet.
About SnmallBASIC and OnBoardC: I could do a bit of stuff on these too-if you all are interested and I have the time;).

What development tools would you like to see discussed? Books will be reviewed soon…

Best regards
Tam Hanna

]]> By: Leo http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2005/11/18/the-art-of-betatesting-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-89 Leo Fri, 18 Nov 2005 20:46:42 +0000 http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/?p=160#comment-89 Hello, I have a general suggestion: perhaps you would like to post reviews of development tools available for Palm, in terms of productivity, instrumentation, and so on. Which ones do you use? Thanks for a great blog, Leo Hello,

I have a general suggestion: perhaps you would like to post reviews of development tools available for Palm, in terms of productivity, instrumentation, and so on. Which ones do you use?

Thanks for a great blog,

Leo

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